


The Sky Full of Stars

by Shayheyred



Category: Darker Than Black
Genre: Alternate Reality, Chromatic Source, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-12
Updated: 2015-12-12
Packaged: 2018-05-06 08:17:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5409677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shayheyred/pseuds/Shayheyred
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alone amid the stars, soulmates confront lies and truths.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sky Full of Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [idc](https://archiveofourown.org/users/idc/gifts).



The ship turns endlessly, like an albino sea turtle swimming in a vast black sea. They are alone, and the sea is empty, empty of water, devoid of air, absent other life. 

The sea is full, filled with stars.

“Li,” Nick says, pointing through the portal window of the turtle ship. Hei’s eyes follow; both of them have given up using the telescope that floats beside them because there’s no need for it any more. The stars are so close, so very close, and there are so many of them, that it’s almost as if they are inside the ship with them. Hei stares into the universe. Everywhere he looks, he sees stars, constellations, bright points of light, dizzying, breathtaking, all encompassing. There is Orion, there Polaris. Nick sees his expression and smiles. "So? What do you think?" 

“Ah,” Hei says, unable to form words. 

“I told you." Nick pushes a foot against the bulkhead, and the momentum in the gravity-free environment moves him beside Hei. “Didn’t I tell you it was spectacular up here?”

Hei nods, trying to remember how they got to “here,” in this ship, in this starry sea. For the life of him he can’t remember blasting off or even climbing into the capsule. Not that it matters. Still, the question puzzles him, prods him. Thinking about it makes his head ache. “Nick—”

“Yes?” Nick is not looking at him, but at the portal. “So many of them. So many stars. I knew you’d like it here.” He turns. “You do like it, don’t you, Li?”

"Yes, very much." Wait — _is Li his name?_ Yes, of course, Li Shung Shen. It must be correct — it just sounded funny for a moment. It just sounded...off. He’s lightheaded, but that's probably due to the lack of gravity. The control panel buzzes and the cabin pulses with green light. “I'm sorry, Nick — what did you say?”

“You _do_ like it up here, I can tell.” Nick grins crookedly at him. “I know that, because we're kindred spirits, Li. I knew that the moment I met you."

"How did you know," Hei whispers.

"I bet you never thought you’d come to space," Nick continues, not bothering to answer Hei's question. "You're more used to mopping floors and cleaning toilets, aren't you?”

Is Nick mocking him? After all, Nick is an important scientist, and he is just a… What is he? A janitor. He is a janitor. That too seems off, but it must be correct if Nick says so. Nick knows a lot of things. Nick knows him well. They're kindred spirits, like Nick says. Besides, Nick seems genuinely happy to have him here. “No, I never thought I would.”

“I’m glad you came, Li. I wouldn’t have wanted to see this alone.” Nick turns from the portal and gives him a long appraising look. "And now it's just the two of us."

They swirl in space, in this ship he has no memory of boarding, and the stars are everywhere. _Real stars, real sky,_ he thinks. Puzzling words. He floats, staring upward. Something encircles him and holds him in place. Nick's arms. The touch drives the stars from his thoughts. “Nick," Hei rasps, uncomfortable at the contact, even slightly panicked. "I don't remember how we got here. I don't know why I can't remember.” 

"Don't worry about it." The ambient light inside the capsule pulses green, but when Hei looks at the control panel all the lights are amber.

Nick straightens suddenly, which spins them both upright. He points to the myriad of stars outside the window. “Look. A star is falling.”

Alarmed, Hei jerks forward, nearly crashing headfirst into the portal. Nick’s arms hold him back. _Stars are falling!_ That means, that means—

“Li,” Nick says, his voice rough in Hei’s ear. “It’s just a falling star, nothing more. It means nothing. Forget it. Forget who you are, and who I am. All you need to know is we’re the same. We're soulmates, Li." Nick smiles; his mouth is close and Hei cannot stop looking at it. "Both of us want the same thing, don’t we, Li? We want the stars the way they're supposed to be.” Hei nods; that seems to be what is required, and Nick's smile widens. “Oh, yes, we are alike in so many ways."

 _The stars the way they’re supposed to be._ “Yes,” says Hei, not understanding.

“We stole a ship. I stole a ship so you and I could go to the stars. Do you remember now?”

“I—“ Does he? If he concentrates, can’t he picture them on the field, at the gantry, climbing aboard? Maybe. Yes, he remembers, a fragment of a thought, a _fragment,_ he _does_ remember Nick pulling him forward, and then they are inside, engines thrumming, and then—

—But there are gaps, lapses between images. How is it no one tried to stop them, and how did they escape the false sky? 

_The false sky._

_and the gate…_

His headache is back, much worse than before, and the dizziness, and the green, the sickly green light pulsing brightly inside the cabin. The control panel is amber; where does the light come from?

“Li,” says Nick soothingly, “just relax. Accept it.”

But wait— “No.” Hei fights the urge to speak, but can’t stop himself as memories surface, as others peel away and wither. “Nick. My name, it doesn't sound... It's wrong, it's not Li. That’s a, that’s my—" What is the word, _what is the word?_

“Cover name?” Nick's smile changes to something crafty and smug. “I know. I know you’re more than a janitor. After all, I’m more than a scientist. Don't you see? We have the same skills, Li. The same wants and needs. We're meant to be together. I knew from the start who you were. I knew what you wanted.” Nick moves closer. “I want it too, Li. I want you.” He touches Hei’s face, and turns them in the gravity-free air, pushing them until Hei’s back is against the bulkhead, their bodies touching. Hei's eyes open wide. “Do you want this, Li?”

 _No._ "Yes."

Nick is not warm, as Hei would have expected. His body, his skin, is cool to the touch. And though Hei wants to resist he does not do so.

There is a jolt between them, a jolt that comes to rest between Hei’s legs, and he gasps with the sensation. Desire courses through him like an electrical current. When his arm slides around Nick’s back it’s almost as if he can feel the pulsing of electricity under his hand.

_Electricity—_

Nick’s lips are on his, and Nick’s hand strokes down between them. The electric buzz intensifies and Hei closes his eyes. Completion is near; he wants this and he doesn’t want it because something is wrong, very wrong. He tears his face away and gasps. “Nick—“

“I want this. So do you.” Nick’s face is bathed in green, giving him the look of an alien being. His mouth twists into a triumphant sneer. He is outlined in a charge of blue-white light, and when Hei raises a hand to touch the aura he sees it's made of thousands of sparks, his own universe of stars. The aura expands, encompassing them both, growing in intensity.

Hei closes his eyes, shutting out Nick, the stars, the light. Behind his closed lids there is a blinding flash, and then he knows. He knows everything. _Too late,_ he thinks, _it’s too late, too late_ and then desperately, _stay, let me—_ and then he’s coming, spending himself as he crashes, breaking through a bright green wall as gravity claims him.

* * *

He is lying on the ground, coping with the pressure of gravity. He can hardly breathe. Hei opens his eyes to find reddish brown dust swirling in the air; when he blinks against the dust he sees he is outside Pandora. The meteor fragment lies in shards nearby. A vision then, that’s all it was. Not reality, no stars, no touch, nothing.

Nearby someone coughs up dust. Nick is sprawled beside him, but as Hei collects himself, Nick staggers upright. There is a gun in his hand.

“You did this,” Nick says, his voice cold, but somewhere there is a sob in it. “Why couldn’t you have let it be? We had the ship! The stars! Why did you have to destroy everything?"

"It wasn't real."

"Weren’t you happy?” Nick hoists the gun higher. "Dammit, wasn't it what you wanted?"

"No." _Yes._

"Liar!" The gun jerks.

Hei doesn’t think or speak. In a fluid motion he is on his feet, kicking the gun away, all instinct as his hands close around Nick’s throat, pouring all of the skills of an elite Contractor into killing the enemy.

It seems to take forever until the light in Nick's accusing eyes begins to fade. At the last moment Hei stops; he drops Nick's unconscious body to the ground. Electric stars sparkle and dissipate.

Hei kneels in the dirt, waiting for his heart to slow, listening to Nick's raspy breaths. He could finish the job, kill him. He stares at the other Contractor, his face slack. No. After a moment he reaches over and slowly removes Nick’s boots, standing them upside down beside him. Not an obeisance. A punishment, perhaps. Or an homage. Maybe something more. 

Hei rises and walks away, not looking back. 

Overhead in the false sky, a star is falling.


End file.
